M Gandhi College of Social Work's Discussions

Dear All Friends, Gandhi Shodh Sansthan, Champaran is planning to start a Gandhi Darshan ( Tour around India ) to promote peace and non-violence and also promote Gandhiji's principles. This journey…Continue

Part A: Rationale of the ProgrammeAs the title suggests, the overall purpose of the course is to give its seekers orientation in the theoretical and practical dimensions of Nonviolence as explained and applied by Mahatma Gandhi in his personal and public life. However, the course content will not be limited to the Gandhian framework only; the examples and interpretations of other practitioners of nonviolence will also be relied upon. We know that the contemporary world is in turmoil. The chief…See More

Dear All Friends, Gandhi Shodh Sansthan, Champaran is planning to start a Gandhi Darshan ( Tour around India ) to promote peace and non-violence and also promote Gandhiji's principles. This journey will start from Bhitiharwa Gandhi Ashram , where Gandhiji's started school on 20th November 1917 and will end on this place only. During this journey vehicle will halt at all state capital , Gandhi Museum and ashram. Organise Exhibition , Talk show , Film Show and Gandhi Exam. I am looking for…See More

"Birendra Kumar,
I've just found your email from 2011 unattended in my Gandhi topia Mohandas Gandhi community forum concerning a Community University Expo 2011. How did this event go? Did you achieve your goals or processes…"

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The Mahatma Gandhi College of Social Work , known as Dream rainbow Project. It is to create a workable and replicable innovative institution of higher education producing social workers , development professional that will not only provide students with adequate theoretical training but also with a community based in-service training that is aimed on changing the community itself. We want to build a college that will be rooted in tradition and meet local community needs. We want to create a college that will not only transform local community, but will instil in its students a global perspective on local community issues. This will be assured by connecting the college with a strong worldwide network of higher education institutions in the process of developing curriculum, courses and opportunities for students opportunities for multicultural grassroots exposure.

The traditional courses lay a greater emphasis on theory, with a substantial weight (about 70 % of the grades) given to written papers and to only about 30 percent of the grades awarded for practical work.

This College of Social Work will be laboratory of social activist and worker. College will promote Gandhiji's thought and promote Gram Sawaraj.

My / our projects, events, campaigns, research, publications

The Rainbow Dream College will be located at Bhitiarwa Ashram, Gaunaha, Narkatiaganj, West Champaran, Bihar, India. Bhitiarwa Ashram was the first venue from which the well-known Gandhian 'Satyagraha against the Indigo Merchants' took place. The land for the Ashram , as well as for the adjunct Gandhi Memorial Museum, hospital, school and Gandhi Research Centre was donated by the Arvin family and currently is Panchayat owned. The complex that houses a Gandhi Memorial Museum supervised by the Ministry of Culture and Youth. The Madanpur forest (part of the Valmiki tiger Reserve) is about 16km away. With the exception of the Museum, all the other buildings are neglected and require renovation.

The idea to create a new college affiliated with the Gandhi Research Institute, Gandhi Memorial Museum and utilizing already existing infrastructure has been reinforced by the following facts:

The location is on the border between Nepal and India, in one of the most backward states, and in a remote area that will give the students an ample opportunity for implementation of various sustainable development projects.
The presence of smaller habitations, with tribal communities as well as non-tribal communities.

The presence of forests and proximity to the tiger reserve will provide opportunities for sustainable development programmes for this specific environmental/ecological sector.

There is a nostalgic and emotional attachment locally to the social uplift started by Gandhi, and a general feeling of sadness that the property is largely misused and is in a dilapidated condition. In preliminary discussions with the community leaders and Panchayat leaders held in January 2010, it was felt that the new college will revitalise the local communities in frame of a practical Gandhian development model and that would motivate people's involvement by seeing this initiative as a tribute to the Mahatma.

During his visit in India in February 2010 Dr. Marek Wosinski together with Birendra Kumar, project coordinator, visited the complex and met with Chauan family to discuss the plans of turning the neglected complex into a college for social workers. The family appeared to be enthusiastic about the project, as it would make a tribute to their grandfather who always dreamed of turning the place as a living memory of Gandhi. They also are aware of the fact that the college will definitely contribute to the development of the area by creating new jobs, offering educational opportunities for local youth and by active efforts made by college students to create a sustainable community in their Panchayat.

As an immediate result of this visit a working plan for the development of the college has been created. In discussion with Prof. Gracious Thomas, the Dean of the School for Social Work at Indira Gandhi National Open University, plans were made for affiliating the college with IGNOU by creating in the college a IGNOU Learning Centre. Our vision is to have the first students there at the beginning of 2011.

I am / We are member of the following institution(s)

Rural Development , Peace , non violence , social action research , experimental research and PLP

M Gandhi College of Social Work's Blog

The Gandhi Ashram and memorial at Motihari in East Champaran today welcomed eleven intrepid walkers led by Birendra Soni, who have retraced the steps of Mahatma Gandhi’s journey across this backward region almost a century ago. The walk covered a route of approximately 550 kilometres, and about 5,000 people participated in the various activities organized by the walkers.…

A ‘Champaran Satyagraha Padyatra’ [journey-on-foot] to draw attention to Gandhian values and development is taking place in Champaran on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti: the birth anniversary of Mohandas Gandhi and International Day of Non-Violence Day. The walk retraces the footsteps of Gandhiji on his struggle for the indigo cultivators (movement).

The walk symbolises a call for local development, and draws attention to the need for a workable and sustainable development pattern for…

I've just found your email from 2011 unattended in my Gandhi topia Mohandas Gandhi community forum concerning a Community University Expo 2011. How did this event go? Did you achieve your goals or processes satisfactorily? I don't always attend to some of the group communications which we are part of as Indigene Community www.indigenecommunity.info of the Sustainable Development Corporation. If there are future events it is better to communicate directly through email douglasf.jack@gmail.com LaSalle-Montreal, Quebec, Canada, H8R 1X9

﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿Thank you very much for your comment in Gandhi-topia.Thank you for your invitation.It will be difficult to join you in the month of Oct,but i will certainly try to be helpful for your conferance in Jan2012.Please send me the details about it and let me know how can I be useful to you.

In october we are going to have a Nonviolence Festival here in Medellín Colombia, it will be developed between october 2 and 8............. we could help each other in the diffusion of our events, because I see that you have an event around that days too.

Dear Birendra,Thank you for your email. I wish you all the best on the presentation of your paper at the International Conference called Community University Expo 2011. I am in Western Canada which is quite a distance from Waterloo. Perhaps we may meet if I am travelling to the East of Canada at that time. I visited India for the first time in my life in December 2010 and enjoyed it tremendously. I would love to visit again, this time in Pune and Rameshwar further South India and Ceylon. Do keep in touch.Sincerely, Dr. Rookmin Maharaj

Please do me the honor of going to a blog I have set up as a tribute to a people who gave us a Gandhiji:

http://freedomwalk-aziz.blogspot.com

Please publicize this site I am looking for a million votes to make FreedomWalk a commemorative postage stamp. Its a long shot because I am a non-entity, nonethless with the dream of bringing the world to pay a tribute to South Africans of Indian descent. They have now spent 150 years participating politically and still have a long way to go in the new paradigm.